Abstract Background Cartilage repair has been a challenge in the field of orthopedics for decades, highlighting the great significance of investigating potential therapeutic drugs. In this study, we explored the effect of SHP2 inhibitor, SHP099, as a small molecule drug on cartilage repair. Methods Human synovial mesenchymal stem cells (SMSCs) were isolated and their three-way differentiation potential was examined. After treated with chondrogenic medium, the chondrogenic effect of SHP099 on SMSCs was examined by Western blot, qPCR, and immunofluorescence (IF). To explore chondrogenic effects of SHP099 in vivo , full-thickness cartilage defects with microfracture were constructed in the right femoral trochlear of New Zealand White rabbits. Intra-articular injection of SHP099 or normal saline were performed twice a week for 6 weeks. Cartilage repair were evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, Safranin O/Fast Green staining. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for collagen II (COL2) was also conducted to verify the abandance of cartilage extracellular matrix after SHP099 treatment. The mechanism involving yes associated protein (YAP) and WNT signaling was investigated in vitro . Result The SMSCs isolated from human synovium represented optimal multi-differentiation potential. SHP099 increased chondrogenic markers (SOX9, COL2) expression and decreased hypertrophic markers (COL10, RUNX2) in SMSCs. The inhibition of YAP and WNT signaling was also observed. Moreover, compared with the normal saline group at 6 weeks, intra-articular injection of SHP099 resulted in better defect filling which formed more hyaline cartilage-like tissue with more glycosaminoglycan (GAG) and COL2. Conclusion SHP099 promotes the repair of rabbit full-thickness cartilage defect, representing a potential therapeutic drug for cartilage repair.
Because of continuous movement and variation in diameter of the inferior vena cava (IVC) with respiration, the measurements on IVC are labor-intensive and with considerable inter-operator variations. Some computer-assisted techniques have been developed to track the movement of the IVC semi-automatically. However, existing methods predominantly rely on reference marker selection and require many manual inputs. In this study, we developed a cross-correlation (CC)-based method for automated IVC movement tracking and measurement, which requires minimal manual input and avoids manual selection of reference markers. Based on the CC method, two approaches, named direct and relative approaches, were used to calculate the maximum, minimum, and variation of the IVC diameter, and compared with the manual measurement. Fifty-four ultrasound cine-loops collected from nine pigs were tested. The results reveal that both the proposed approaches were well agreed with the manual measurement. The errors of the direct approach were less than 9%, while those of relative approach were as high as 26.7%. It is concluded that the proposed direct approach is superior for IVC diameter measurements, which can be comparable with manual counterpart, serving as an alternative to traditional IVC measurement.
Abstract Purposes: Currently, most researchers mainly analyzed COVID-19 pneumonia visually or qualitatively, probably somewhat time-consuming and not precise enough. This study aimed to excavate more information, such as differences in distribution, density, and severity of pneumonia lesions between males and females in a specific age group using artificial intelligence (AI)-based CT metrics. Besides, these metrics were incorporated into a clinical regression model to predict the short-term outcome.Methods: The clinical, laboratory information and a series of HRCT images from 49 patients, aged from 20 to 50 years and confirmed with COVID-19, were collected. The volumes and percentages of infection (POI) among bilateral lungs and each bronchopulmonary segment were extracted using uAI-Discover-NCP software (version R001). The POI in three HU ranges, (i.e. <-300, -300~49 and ≥50 HU representing ground-glass opacity (GGO), mixed opacity and consolidation), were also extracted. Hospital stay was predicted with several POIs after adjusting days from illness onset to admission, leucocytes, lymphocytes, c-reactive protein, age and gender using a multiple linear regression model.Results: Right lower lobes had the highest POI, followed by left lower lobes, right upper lobes, middle lobes and left upper lobes. The distributions in lung lobes and segments were different between the sexes. Men had a higher total POI and GGO of the lungs, but less consolidation than women in initial CT (all p<0.05). The total POI, percentage of consolidation on initial CT and changed POI were positively correlated with hospital stay in the model.Conclusion: Both men and women had characteristic distributions in lung lobes and bronchopulmonary segments. AI-based CT quantitative metrics can provide more precise information regarding lesion distribution and severity to predict clinical outcome.
Objective
To evaluate the association between quantitative ultrasonographic features and clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical features of triple negative invasive breast carcinoma(TNBC).
Methods
With the ethical approval, 96 patients who were pathologically confirmed as TNBC were retrospectively reviewed. All patients were sub-grouped according to age, tumor size, pathological grade, Ki67 expression level and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) score.Ultrasound images were segmented for the breast carcinoma mass using a phase-based active contour model. The high-throughput radiomics features were extracted based on the two-dimensional sonographic features. There were 460 features extracted from each ultrasound image. A series of computer aided algorithms including K-svd algorithm, sparse representation, support vector machine (SVM) and radial basis function were used to determine the high-throughput sonographic features that were highly correlated to clinical, pathological and immunohistochemical features of TNBC. The performance efficacy was expressed by accuracy and area under curve (AUC) of the ROC curve.
Results
The high-throughput ultrasonographic features of invasive TNBC could predict its pathological grade, Ki67 level and HER-2 score with the accuracy 92.2%-96.9% and AUC 98.7%-99.9%. There were 82 radiomics features selected for predicting the pathological grade of TNBC, the feature with the maximum weight was the elliptic-normalized eccentricity based on morphological features. There were 100 features selected for predicting the Ki67 expression level, the feature with the maximum weight was the standard deviation of the annular region based on the boundary texture features. There were 85 features selected for the prediction of HER-2 score, the most powerful parameter was the intensity based on NGTDM texture features.
Conclusions
Quantitative high-throughput ultrasonographic features are correlated with the pathological and immunohistochemical characteristics of invasive TNBC. High-throughput ultrasonographic features are valuable in predicting biological behavior of TNBC.
Key words:
Ultrasonography; Breast neoplasms; Pathology; Radiomics; Immunohistochemistry
In this paper, the extraction process of flavonoids from hemp fibers was studied. Response surface methodology (RSM) analysis of the extraction parameters indicated that optimized results would be ethanol concentration 76 vol.%, bath ratio 1:50, and reaction time 139 min; therefore, an optimal extraction rate of flavonoids of 0.2275% can be obtained. The chemical structure, surface morphology and element composition of flavonoid extracts were analyzed. The test results indicated that hemp extract contains flavonoids, which can be used to extract flavonoids from hemp fiber, so as to comprehensively develop hemp fiber and reduce the discharge of waste liquid in the traditional degumming process.
Objective
To evaluate the risk factors in terms of clinical characteristics, serological indicators and sonographic features regarding thyroid papillary carcinoma (PTC) for the central neck lymph node metastasis.
Methods
One thousand one hundred and seventy-four patients accepted thyroid cancer surgery at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center from January to September 2016 were enrolled. All patients were confirmed to be solitary PTC in paraffin wax pathology after thyroidectomy.Meanwhile, the status of central neck lymph node metastasis was determined referring to postoperative pathology. All features of the PTC lesion in terms of clinical, serological and sonographic features were evaluated for the association with central neck lymph node metastasis using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Meanwhile, a nomogram model was established for the determined risk factors.
Results
Out of 1 174 patients, 469 patients (39.9%) presented central neck lymph node metastasis, univariate analysis showed that age, gender, preoperative thyroglobulin(Tg) and thyroid peroxidase antibody(TPOAb), maximum diameter, location, close to the thyroid capsule, AP/TR, echo, acoustic halo, and presence of microcalcification were related with CLNM (P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that less than 55 years-old, male, Tg higher than 20 μg/L, TPOAb less than 1 kU/L, maximum diameter larger than 10 mm, and presence of microcalcification were independent risk factors for CLNM. The nomogram was established based on independent risk factors determined by the logistic regression with the AUC 0.714, specificity 73.1%, and sensitivity 59.7%.
Conclusions
For patients with single focal PTC lesion, younger age, male, higher Tg, lower TPOAb, and larger lesions containing microcalcificatin on ultrasound are associated with central neck lymph node metastasis.
Key words:
Ultrasonography; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Lymph node metastasis; Nomogram
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